Article of the Month

Title: Iconography of Vaishnava Deities: Goddess Lakshmi

"Her epithet in the Devi-Mahatmya is Mahalakshmi. She is the wrathful four-armed goddess of battlefield represented holding in them various weapons…. A form of Lakshmi seated over a lotus laid over a golden seat and a pair of white elephants…. Except in some classical forms in Lakshmi-Narayana imagery Lakshmi is ordinarily two-armed…. Incarnation theory is the crux of Vaishnavism. Vishnu incarnates alone but Lakshmi also incarnates in simultaneity…. Though very rare some enthused artists have conceived on Ardhanarishvara line also Vishnu’s Ardhanarishvara images."

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Quote of the Day

Like the featherless young bird crying out for its mother, the hungry calf eager for cow's milk and like the wife who has intense longing for her beloved husband away from home, so am I, O lotus-eyed god, keen to behold you.

Shrimad Bhagavata Purana 6.11.26

Those who cook food (only) for themselves eat only sin.

Bhagavad Gita 3.13

It is rare to have birth in Bharatavarsha (India).

Skandapuran, 12.54-55

Good advice to fools only provokes them and not pacifies. The drinking of milk by serpents produces poison in them and not nectar.

Shukraneeti, 4.1.19

The characteristics of Dharma are the following: Never taking something which is not given to us; Being steadfast in studying the Vedas; Doing charity; Performing austerities; Practising non-violence; Speaking the truth; Not getting angry and performing Yagyas.

(Mahabharata, Shantiparva 36.10)

Whose son is under his control, whose wife follows his words, who has ample wealth, for him, this world itself is heaven.

Chanakya Neeti Darpan: 2.3

A king without pride, a Brahmin without greed, a sage without anger, a monkey without pranks, a poet without jealousy, a merchant who is no thief (pilferer), a fond husband without jealousy, a good man not poor, a rich man not half-wicked, an attendant who is happy, a gambler who is grateful, a wandering ascetic who is not hungry, a cruel man who is sweet of tongue and a kings son who is not arrogant are rare in this world.

Harshacharit, 202

Never look at your own reflection in water.

Manusmriti: 3.38

The good people who earn their livelihood with righteous means, who are attached only to their wives, who have control over their senses and who love their guests there is salvation in their house itself.

Chanakyarajaneetishastra, 2.47

A dog wags its tail, falls at the feet of its master and lies down flat on the ground to show its mouth and stomach to the man who feeds it: but the noble elephant looks with a clam and steady glance upon the face of its master and condescends to take its food after a series of soothing and flattering entreaties.

Neetishatak, 23

Just as a frog swallows beings even when in the fangs of a serpent, in the same way, self, why you even in the grip of death, torment others?

Adhyatmakalpadrum, 10.11

One tenth of our income should be given to charity. The rest should be divided into three parts - one for increasing our wealth, second for dharma and the third for one's own consumption.

Shiva Purana. Vidyeshvarasamhita.13.72

People with great intellect conquest the impulse of anger while the people of lower caliber are conquered by it.

Shishupalavadh, 16.26

Penance is done alone, studies with two, singing with three, traveling with four, farming with five, and a battle is fought well by many.

Chanakya Neeti Darpan: 4.12

Separation from wife, censure by the good, the remainder of debt, service to the miser, the advent of the dear ones when one is stricken with poverty  these five burn the body without fire.

Neetishastra, 18

A man invariably sins while indulging his sense organs. By controlling them he gains all siddhis.

Manusmriti: 2.93

Never take advice from dancers, sycophants, mean people, children, barbers, monks and hermits.

Panchatantra BkV.64

Like a tree laden with ripe fruits bends naturally, so do gentle people display all the more humility when blessed with abundance.

Bhartrihari's Nitishatakam 71

A well-born person is worthy of respect, more than him is an artist, more than him even is a scholar, still more than him is one of good conduct, more that still him is a rich person, more than even a rich person is a philanthropist. But even his fame is eclipsed by him who has never begged.